Why Binance.com isn't for US customers: the 2023 $4.3 billion settlement explained

For years, Binance was the biggest name in crypto trading. Treasury described it in 2023 as responsible for an estimated 60% of spot trading on centralized crypto exchanges. Yet if you’re in the US, Binance.com isn’t a platform you can use. The reason is a set of settlements announced on 21 November 2023, which the CFTC said required more than $4.3 billion in payments in total.

This guide explains what US authorities found, what each agency imposed, and what it means if you trade crypto from the US. For how to check an exchange before you use it, see how to check if a crypto exchange is registered.

Who acted, and why

Several parts of the US government resolved cases against Binance on the same day:

• the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees derivatives;
• the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which enforces anti-money laundering rules;
• the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which enforces sanctions;
• the Department of Justice, which brought criminal charges based on an investigation led by IRS Criminal Investigation.

Treasury said the IRS investigation found that the company and its founder didn’t have an effective anti-money laundering program, didn’t register as a money transmitter as federal law requires, and willfully violated US sanctions.

What FinCEN found: no suspicious activity reports at all

Treasury treated Binance as a money services business, which must register with FinCEN, run an anti-money laundering program and report suspicious transactions. Treasury said Binance admitted it:

• willfully operated as an unregistered money services business while hiding its ties to the US and keeping its most important US customers;
• willfully failed to run an effective anti-money laundering program, including by not carrying out know-your-customer checks on a large number of users;
• never filed a single suspicious activity report with FinCEN. Its former chief compliance officer had told staff that the CEO’s policy was not to report such activity.

As a result, Treasury said, Binance failed to report well over 100,000 suspicious transactions. They included transactions linked to terrorist groups including Al Qaeda, ISIS and Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, proceeds of at least 24 strains of ransomware, websites selling child sexual abuse material, and darknet markets. For what these checks look like from the customer’s side, see KYC and the travel rule.

What OFAC found: trades with sanctioned places

OFAC said that between August 2017 and October 2022, Binance executed more than 1.67 million trades on Binance.com between US persons and users in sanctioned jurisdictions or blocked persons. Treasury named Iran, North Korea, Syria and the Crimea region of Ukraine among the places involved.

The way it happened is telling. Binance had geofencing, blocks on users with US or sanctioned-country internet addresses. But Treasury said Binance suggested users try virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around them, so it could keep both its US users and its users in sanctioned places. Because its matching engine paired buyers and sellers automatically, trades between the two groups were inevitable. Treasury said executives, including the CEO, gave guidance to “appear” compliant. See crypto mixers and sanctions for how sanctions apply to crypto.

What the CFTC found: an illegal derivatives exchange

The CFTC’s case was about derivatives, such as futures. Its proposed order found that, from July 2019, Binance offered and executed commodity derivatives transactions for US persons through the world’s largest crypto derivatives platform, without registering with the CFTC. The CFTC said Binance collected about $1.35 billion in trading fees from US customers, and found that Binance and its CEO followed a strategy of willful non-compliance because they believed they would make more money that way.

The CFTC quoted Binance’s chief compliance officer as summing up the risk of serving US customers as: “CFTC = civil case = pay a fine and settle”. The CFTC’s enforcement director called that a poor business decision.

The penalties

These figures can’t simply be added up: the CFTC put the overall total across all the authorities at more than $4.3 billion. The CFTC’s order was a proposed consent order, subject to approval by a federal court in Illinois.

The SEC’s separate case

The SEC also sued Binance, its US affiliates and Zhao in June 2023, over securities law issues. That civil case wasn’t part of the November 2023 settlements, and the SEC dismissed it with prejudice on 29 May 2025, saying it did so in its discretion and as a policy matter. See why the SEC dropped its lawsuits against Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.

The monitor and the exit from the US

The settlement isn’t just a payment. Treasury said that for five years, a monitor will have access to Binance’s books, records and systems, oversee its fixes, and report to FinCEN, OFAC and the CFTC. The monitor will also check that Binance doesn’t offer services to US persons. Binance agreed to a lookback, finding and reporting the suspicious transactions it should have reported. The CFTC order also stops Binance allowing “sub-accounts” to be used to get around its new compliance controls.

What it means for you

• Binance.com isn’t for US customers. The settlements require Binance to stay out of the US. Binance.US is a separate platform run by a US affiliate, BAM Trading Services, according to the SEC.
• Don’t use a VPN to reach an offshore exchange. Getting round geographic blocks with VPNs is the conduct Treasury described. An exchange that blocks US customers is telling you it doesn’t operate under US rules, so you can’t count on US protections if something goes wrong.
• Registration matters. Binance’s failures, from missing identity checks to unreported suspicious activity, are the things registration and oversight are meant to catch. See how to choose a crypto exchange.
• Big doesn’t mean safe. Size and popularity didn’t stop the world’s largest exchange from breaking US law for years. For what happens to customers when an exchange fails, see crypto exchange bankruptcy.